Switzerland Photos!

I love this country! We had an amazing time.

Trummelbach Falls

The first town we stayed in, Gimmelwald

Hike in Gimmelwald

Falls in Gimmelwald

The Lauterbrunnen Valley

Gimmelwald

Gimmelwald overlooking the Lauterbrunnen Valley

View from First

View from First

Hike in mountains

Flowers in the valley

Scooter ride down the mountain

So fast!!!

Goodbye Spain

Spain, we have had a great relationship. You've made me indulge in and appreciate this relaxed, worry-free, laid back lifestyle, something hard for me being a pretty worry/stress plagued person.

I came to Spain to experience a new culture, re-learn a language and take a break from life as I have always known it. It has been an amazing experience. I absolutely love the people here, they are so enjoyable to be around. They are sarcastic, warm, and very caring. The weather was a bit rough in the winter, but it was nothing I wouldn't go through all over again to experience this incredible spring breeze and perfect weather.

All in all I love this country. It has its flaws, like all countries, but I have learned to love them, like in any good relationship. I will miss my life here and miss the school, teaching and the kids. I will miss the friends I have made and will definitely miss the weather, the beach, and the mountains. But I know I will be back one day. So for now I will say "hasta luego España", "see you later Spain". You have been kind.

So Spanish Part 2

1. There is usually no soap in the public bathrooms (schools, restaurants, etc) so any type of sickness is like the plague. Since no one washes their hands everyone in the school gets sick at the same time. Classrooms of 23 see 7 kids go home sick at once. Hand sanitizer hasn't seemed to prevent me from catching anything...I guess when a kid coughs in your face you can't really help getting sick.

2. Eric and I frequently see Spanish people wearing T-shirts with phrases in English. The phrases are always incredibly random and we can't really understand what they mean even though they're in English. We're pretty positive that the people wearing them don't speak English or understand either. Just the other day, in one of my classes, I saw these phrases on the kid's shirts:
- Divine Lady
- Love Music Sound
- Happy Time Sunshine
- Mafia
- Climate Change
- Boxing Parade
I just don't get it....

3. Kids are obsessed with Sponge Bob. They have Sponge Bob pencil cases, notebooks, backpacks, you name it. I think they might like "Bob Esponja", as they call him, more in Spain than in the US.

4. At least one day a week in school a kid will ask me "How do you say my name in English". They get a kick out of it when I tell them. Usually though, the kids don't realize that their name is the same in English and Spanish, just pronounced differently, and the always seem a little disappointed. For example if a girls name is "Ana", well, I have to tell her that her name  is still "Ana". This tends to happen a lot, since the most popular names are Paula, Adrian, Laura, Francisco, Hugo, etc. But I love to fudge it a little if someone really does have a very Spanish name, like Rocío, I say ok, now your name is Rosie. They love it.

5. I always find it interesting that in a hostel or hotel in Spain you pay after your stay not before.

6. I have yet to find a place where I can buy measuring utensils for cooking. Apparently the recipes are all made to taste, or the women just know the recipes after making them so many times. It blows my mind that even in the big chain target type stores here I haven't found anything remotely close to a measuring cup.

7. This is how they say can I go to the bathroom: ¿Puedo hacer pipi? This literally means "Can I make peepee?". That took a little while to get used to. Then today a first grader asked me "Puedo hacer caca". Can you guess what that means? I didn't hesitate to let him go to the bathroom. (By the way I came across "caca" in the dictionary and it literally translates to poo, not poop, but poo.)

8. The women where I live sound like men. They have low, raspy voices and if you aren't looking in their direction its easy to mistake their gender. One time I had to make an important phone call to the government when I wasn't getting paid to request attention on my issue. By accident I called the important woman a man, and well, she hung up on me and blocked my calls. I will never assume again.

9. There is a serious respect for pedestrians in my town. When crossing the street, even if the car is going 40 mph and about to crash into me, I'm not alarmed because the car ALWAYS stops, even if its an inch away. It's a good feeling knowing I can cross the street with authority.

10. The words sheep, ship and sheet are often confused. And usually when the Spanish people say "sheet" it almost always sounds like "shit". 

11. This has nothing to do with Spanish customs or culture, but I feel the need to share this interesting tidbit of information. There is a teacher in my school, the 5th grade teacher who I like very much, but who has an interesting habit. She wears the EXACT same outfit on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And the reason I notice is not only because I am in her class both of these days, but because the outfits are always distinct. She will wear bright red pants and a slightly revealing white blouse on Tuesday, and I will think, huh thats an interesting outfit, no 50 year old woman school teacher in the US could pull that off. And then on Wednesday I am always surprised when I see her wearing the exact same thing again. I don't get it, she has style, money, a house, children, a husband, and she lives in the town she works. There is no excuse or reason for this. But more than anything I get a kick out of it every Wednesday, it keeps things interesting. 

You know you live in Spain when...

the kids that walk by you on the way to their dance recital aren't wearing cowboy boots and hats, but intense, brightly colored flamenco dresses, draped scarves, and head pieces that are the same size as them. What a fun sight.

Kids are Funny Part 2

My day today:

- A 4 year old kid pulled a fat, disgusting, partially dead worm out of his pocket. I told the teacher, the kid threw it out the window. The kid proceeded to eat his sandwich without washing his hands. The teacher didn't think twice.

- A 2nd grader peed her pants in her chair. I walked into the room to find a mop trail from her desk to the hall of the classroom. The girl came back into the class 20 minutes later, smiling like nothing happened. Kids are resilient.

What a funny, interesting, disturbing day.

Barcelona Trip

My friends Michelle and Jessica are here visiting Eric and I in Spain for about 10 days! We feel so lucky to have friends come visit us and share and add to our amazing experience.

Eric and I flew to Barcelona on Friday morning to meet them for a long weekend of exploring Barcelona. Michelle also ran the Barcelona marathon (this is her 7th marathon and she got a personal record!). Here are some pictures from our trip:

In front of La Sagrada Familia

Buying a picnic lunch inside Barcelona's beautiful market la Boqueria

Eric and I at the Barcelona vs Zaragoza football game (1-0 Barca win!)

Michelle during hour 1 of the marathon and still going strong!

Jessica and I in front of the Arc de Triomphe, with the marathon still going beside us

Michelle with her victory medal in Plaza de España where the race finished

On the roof of Gaudi's amazing architectural creation Casa Batllo

Pueblos Blancos Driving Tour: Preview

During our 4-day weekend Eric and I rented a car (scary!!!) and drove through five small white towns in the Sierra de Grazalema, which is about two hours north of our town. We drove through the windy mountains, walked through each town, wandered, drank coffee, explored, hiked, and ate many many tapas.

We now realize what a luxury it is to have a car. We were able to pull over and take lots of pictures and see all of these towns, which are inaccessible by public transportation. Here is a preview of our trip, more to come:

Our lovely burnt sienna rental car

First stop: Arcos de la Frontera 

A view from between two hilltop towns

Part of our hike in the Sierra de Grazalema 

More hiking in the Sierra - we saw lots of animals!

The end of our hike: Salto del Cabrero (aka two really cool looking peaks in background)

Friends in Spain

Wednesday night was the 47th birthday of Eric and I's good friend here in Spain. We went out to a local bar with the Birthday boy and some other friends to watch the Barcelona vs. Arsenalt soccer game. The group was comprised of:

- 24-year-old German woman
- 30-year-old Spanish man
- Two 40ish-year-old Spanish woman
- Two 45ish-year-old Spanish men
- Two 24-year-old Americans

All different languages, French, English, German, and Spanish, were flying around the table, along with all different kinds of drinks. There were Barcelona soccer supporters and Madrid soccer supporters (if your a Spaniard your rooting for one of these teams).

I think to an outsider this might seem like an extremely strange mix of people, and it seems that the age and cultural differences would make things awkward. But here in Spain, as I have learned, background, and age especially, aren't prerequisites for friendship. Our friends have kids, have all different types of jobs, and backgrounds but for some reason here in Spain it all doesn't matter. Everyone has been so kind and invited us to be their friends, regardless of everything except that they like us for being us: American, young, whatever. It kind of amazes me.

We spent the night drinking fair amounts of cañas (beer), wine, and at the end, champagne to toast our friend's birthday. It was lots of fun and I went home a little tipsy and very satisfied. It's not every night that I have the opportunity to be around such good, kind-hearted people and cultural diversity. 

I am officially Spanish

Today I had a 3 hour and 45 minute lunch.

'nuff said.

Work

Some days I work a lot, some days I can't really call my work "work". Today was one of those days. I barely worked. One hour of "work" to be exact. Was I bored? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Will I have a rude awakening when I come home? Probably.

But I have some time before I have to worry about that. Livin' the dream...

Day Trip: Castellar de la Frontera

Eric and I took a day trip with our Spanish friends (Gerardo and Maria Jose) and their 3 kids and a British couple they are friendly with. We ate a delicious lunch and had some afternoon drinks (do like the Spanish do) outside in the beautiful weather. We then drove up to the castle (castellar) and explored the tiny town on a hill. Here are some pictures:

View of the castle. People still live inside the castle walls.

View from the top of the castle.

Gerardo and Marie Jose's kids, very cute.

Inside the castle walls.

View from the other side of the castle. You can see Gibraltar from here!

Another view of the walls from inside the castle.

Coffee and cake at a shop inside the castle.

Righhhhhhhhhhhhhht

I went to my school coordinator at the end of January and said "its the end of the month, do you have my check?". His response was "we don't have any money", to which I replied "oh, wait, are you joking?".

No, he was not joking. Like many other schools who are working through the same program, my school has not received money from the government to pay me. This is the chain of events: schools in Andalucía send a request to the government (Junta de Andalucía) to become a bilingual school and therefore receive an English assistant, me, to help. The government pays me a monthly stipend. They send all of the money I am supposed to receive for the year to my school in October (the first month that I am working), and the school pays me my stipend at the end of each month.

Since my school never received the money in October they had been paying me with money they received from book sales to the students. I just found out that this book sales money was not theirs. A local book store called Goya sold the books to the students. The school then collected the money for the books from the students on Goya's behalf but had yet to pay them back (it is 5 months later). Yesterday the Goya store owner came to the school to get the money, which they gave to me and I have already spent.

We are working to fix the problem, calling the government and trying to get them to rush the money that should have already been here. I need the money for obvious reasons, its my income, I have to pay my rent, electricity bill, groceries, etc. And luckily the school is in a bind too (since they owe money to the book store) so they have an incentive to help me get paid.

To be honest I wasn't that surprised that this happened. It is pretty awful that the government has taken over 5 months to get the money to my school, but what can I say, this is Spain. At some point, probably after the bathroom incident, I realized that this is the way life works here. I'm just going with it.

Where does the cow live??????

The second grade class is my least favorite. It is my last class on Mondays and Thursdays. It lasts an hour. The teacher is boring and the kids are visibly bored. They sit a their desks cutting their erasers into little, tiny pieces and then build piles out of them. They also play with their pencil shavings. Don't ask me what they do with them because I don't really understand what is so special about pencil shavings, I guess that's a clear indication of their boredom level.

Last Thursday I had a particularly interesting experience in this class. It was right before the weekend (for me) and I was bored, hungry, and itching to get out. The teacher began reviewing the unit, animals, in front of the class like usual. Over the past week we had reviewed names of all the different types of animals, wild, farm, aquatic, etc. We also reviewed questions that could be asked on the subject, for example, "Donde vive (enter animal here)?".

The teacher was following her usual reviewing routine and here is what proceeded to happen:

Teacher: "How do you say, 'Donde vive la vaca' in English?"

Student #1: "What does the cow eat?" (for descriptive purposes I will tell you that this student is the only asian kid in the school, and is also the niece of the 2nd grade teacher and the daughter of the 4 year old teacher.)

Teacher: No, la pregunta es "Donde vive la vaca"? Clara have you studied?

Student #2 raises her hand.
Student #2: "Where the cow live?"

Teacher: DOES, WHERE DOES THE COW LIVE? REPEAT, Where DOES the cow live?

Student #2: Where do the cow live?

Teacher: DO, DO, NO! WHERE DOES THE COW LIVE? (the teacher is very angry at this point. She keeps looking at me with the expression, 'what the hell is going on', these kids are the devil, and she's flapping her hands at her sides with wide, angry eyes and disbelief). Now, answer the question, "Where does the cow live?".

Student #3 bravely raises her hand.
Student #3: The cow lives in the farm.

Teacher: (in Spanish yelling and scaring me at this point) YES FINALLY, YOU GET A 10, EVERYONE ELSE GETS A ZERO! WHY HAS NO ONE STUDIED, the question is "WHERE DOES THE COW LIVE, WHERE DOES THE COW LIVE", we have gone over this for over 2 weeks, you have it in your notebook, WHY have you not studied? CLEARLY, no one in this classroom CARES AT ALL about learning ENGLISH. YOU DON'T STUDY! The question is "WHERE DOES THE COW LIVE", the answer is "THE COW LIVES ON THE FARM"!!

After looking at me and looking at the students and back and forth with a look of anger and disbelief and scariness the teacher finally said:

Stacey, you can go, clearly no one cares about learning. (She said this in Spanish, quickly, and barely looking at me because she was so upset.)

--------------------------

So I left, I mean ran out of this crazy ladies classroom. It was 20 minutes before the end of school.

My first reaction was to laugh. I mean really, these kids are in 2nd grade, they can barely say colors in english, how do you expect them to remember "Where does the cow live?". And also, when in real life would you ever need to ask "Where does the cow live?". I know she was trying to broaden their English skills, and I know that the kids should have studied more, but they can only fit so much in their little brains. It was funny watching this screaming, rampaging, 40-year old Spanish lady, yelling "Where does the cow live" over and over again. She was so upset over a sentence about cows. I laughed about it then and am still laughing about it.

--------------------------

When I went into the class today we reviewed these same questions. Every single kid knew how to say "Donde vive la vaca" in English. They also knew that the cow lives on the farm. Lesson learned.

Intercambio

Today was the first day of my "intercambio". At the school that I take Spanish classes they offer a program, "intercambio", where you exchange language practice with a person native to the language you wish to learn. For me, I am paired with five native Spanish speakers who are trying to improve their English. Luckily, today I only met with two of them.

I was really nervous to do this program. For a while now, for most of my learning Spanish life, I have had a mental block against speaking Spanish. I can read, write and understand very well, but when I go to speak my tongue turns into a brick and my mind goes blank. I can say everything in my head to myself but when I open my mouth nothing comes out, and what does come out is usually wrong. Don't get me wrong, I can communicate and get by and have small talk, but I can't express my opinions or feelings.

I thought coming here and being immersed into the Spanish speaking world would provide a magical solution to my speaking problem. Of course my Spanish has improved but my core issues still remain. And it hasn't been hard to find ways to hide and escape from having to exercise my spanish skills. Now though, this second time around, since this is really the beginning of the end of my time here, I am trying really hard to put myself out there and bring down my wall. I want to learn more and feel less confined and timid. This program will not only help me with my spanish speaking skills but I know it will overall enrich my experience because I will be able to have a relationship with Spanish people beyond the people I see everyday at my job. I want to have a full experience. The intercambio is my solution, or at least I hope. 

My partners and I met today in the school bar, aka cafeteria, aka cafe/you can order food here but I wouldn't call it a restaurant. My friend Henk (a retired Dutch 65 year old man who lives in Sotogrande and golfs all day with his wife) came along. He speaks English fluently. I wanted to have another English speaking person there to balance out the two Spanish people I was meeting with. He was happy to come since he wants to practice his Spanish. Since this was the first time all of us met, we decided to briefly, one by one, and in their foreign language, give an introduction about ourselves. The Spanish girl, Monica, studied Chemistry and since she couldn't find a job teaching after she graduated 7 years ago she now works at the casinos in Gibraltar. The Spanish man, Daniel (pronounced Danielle), is a PE teacher at a private school and likes to play padel, like the rest of Europe, but I still can't figure out what that is exactly (no, it's not racquetball or tennis, but it does involve a wall, a ball and a racquet). Then it was my turn to talk about myself. My issues started to present themselves - my mind went blank, I started twitching and getting really nervous, then I started uncontrollably cursing and my skin turned green!!!! Just kidding, but my mind did go blank and all the Spanish I have ever learned seemed to slip out of my mind. I stumbled through my introduction and felt pretty illiterate and stupid. In the moment I was angry with myself. I know how to speak, I just have stage fright. I can do this, right? I know I just need to let go, and over time I hope this program will help me do that.

So, we will see. Everyday is a new struggle to speak, but everyday is also an opportunity to improve. Hopefully I can open up enough to be fluent by the time I leave.

Hasta luego.

Hiking: Parque Natural de Los Alcornocales

On Saturday, Eric and I packed our water bottles and a granola bars and took the train to a nearby town, Jimena de la Frontera, to begin a 9.5 km hike. We had great weather, 65 degrees, and the pueblo blanco was quaint and beautiful. 

The hike was a big circle. First we went to the top of the town and then trekked up the peaks, then down through the Hozgarganta Valley where we saw pines and cork oaks. Once in the valley we reached the river and crossed it in two parts via stepping stones. The river was overflown, so we had to cross in shoes (with water up to my thighs) to get to the other side of the river (see picture below). Very adventurous! From the river we saw the jagged ridges of the valley and a few small sandy beaches. After a few more hours of hiking along the river we walked by an old water channel called El Cao (which once supplied water to the factory where the cannon balls used during the siege of Gibraltar were manufactured). Soon after walking along the channel we hiked up a bit more and then arrived back to the town of Jimena just before 6pm. And, before heading back to the train station to go back to San Roque we had a victory beer in the main town square. It felt good to sit down after our 5 hour hike (and of course the beer couldn't have tasted better!). 

The trip was really great. We really enjoyed getting outside and seeing the natural landscape and breathing in the fresh air. With our book (Walking in Andalucia, by Guy Hunter-Watts) there are lots of hikes in our area, so we will be doing this again very soon, especially if the weather keeps up! Here are some pictures of our hike:

Jimena de la Frontera - town where we began our hike

Lookout point in the middle of our hike

Distance from our side of the river to the stepping stones, where we walked in the water

Great view of the river

Do like the Spanish do

When Eric and I first moved into our apartment we didn't notice anything wrong. A few weeks into living there we realized there was a funky smell coming from our second bathroom, "the older one". It turns out that the pipes were really old which prevented the sewage from properly flowing out of the bathroom. Granted we never used the bathroom so you can only imagine how long that stuff must have been stuck in there, and therefore how bad the smell was. Nonetheless, since we signed the lease under false pretenses we decided it was only fair that the owner fix this unlivable issue.

The owner said that she would have the bathroom redone. We were very excited. Now we were really getting some bang for our weakly converted buck. Their timeline of completion of the bathroom seemed the same as ours, fix this problem as soon as possible. Problem solved, right?

No, problem not solved. This is the part where I remind you of the country in which I live. I live in Spain, not Germany or Switzerland, countries of great efficiency. I live in southern Spain, where "no pasa nada" (no worries) and "tranquilo" (calm) are the mottos.

After three months of dealing with "late plumbers", the worthless brother of our landlord (our landlord lives in Madrid so we deal with her brother), being waken up before we had to be up, having our privacy interrupted, rigorously translating our concerns and issues into Spanish, AND after a 10 day trip to Rockville and back, the bathroom was, how do you say "complete?"...not quite.

This is what the we found when we returned to our apartment (believe me, we joked about the bathroom not being complete). There was a chair in the middle of the bathroom with a light fixture on it, not in ceiling. There was no door or curtain on the shower and there was a small water leak from the ceiling window. We had given them plenty of time to finish, had given them plenty of patience, but the bathroom was still just hairs away from being complete, it was not complete.

The real cherry on top of this whole catastrophe is that when our landlord's brother, Pepe, came by to talk to us about the "completed" bathroom and we told him that we still can't use the shower because there is no curtain, etc, his response was, in Spanish of course, "you can still use the shower, and I want to make sure it works, you can just mop up the floor after your showers". And to this Eric replied, in very good Spanish, "Why would I want to have to mop after I shower, just finish the bathroom". I mean really, mop after I shower? Who does that?

To them apparently almost complete is complete. No pasa nada, right?

Kids are Funny

I was just looking through some photos from when I taught the kids about Christmas in the US and I came across this little gem. In the 5th grade class we made "Merry Christmas" cards. On the board I wrote out what they needed to do on the card. On the front of the card they had to draw Santa and use cotton for his beard and on the inside of the card they had to write the message I wrote on the board:

Clearly I have not been doing a good job teaching English. Look at this kid's card (click on the picture for a better view): 

He wrote "Cotton Best Wishes for Christmas and New Years 2011".

This girl got it right (above). Heres the front of her card, very pretty: